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The H-1B visa registration process for FY 2024 has not been announced yet.   The immigration lawyers of Zneimer & Zneimer PC are preparing for the registration period to ensure that our clients can successfully register their H-1B visa beneficiaries.  The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) typically opens the registration process for H-1B visas in the beginning of the year. The exact dates and details of the registration process are typically announced several weeks in advance by the USCIS. It is important to stay informed about the H-1B registration process and be prepared to submit your application as soon as the registration period opens.  We expect that USCIS will announce the registration process within the next couple of months.  Please complete and send us this H-1B Registration Form if you would like our help.

Employers who wish to sponsor an employee for an H-1B visa must create an H-1B registrant account on the USCIS website. This account allows employers to submit registrations for their employees during the H-1B registration period.

It is important for employers to stay informed about the H-1B registration process and ensure that they are following all requirements set by the USCIS. Following the USCIS’s announcements helps to ensure that the registration process runs smoothly and reduces the risk of errors or complications that could delay or prevent an employee from obtaining an H-1B visa.  To ensure compliance, employers should:

  • stay up-to-date with the latest information and changes to the H-1B registration process and requirements as announced by the USCIS.
  • review and understand the guidelines set by the USCIS for the H-1B registration process.
  • gather all required documents and information for the employee and the employer before the registration period opens.
  • double check all the information and documents for accuracy before submitting the registration.
  • consult with a qualified immigration attorney or a registered agent if in doubt.

By following these steps, employers can help ensure that their H-1B registration is complete and accurate, which will increase the chances of their employees being selected for the H-1B program.

The registrant account will require the employer to provide basic information about their company, including Employer Identification Number (EIN), company name, and contact information. Once the account is created, the employer can use it to register their employees for the H-1B visa program. It is important to note that creating an H-1B registrant account does not guarantee that an employee will be selected for the H-1B program. The number of H-1B visas available is limited and selected through a lottery system.

To ensure proper registration, we typically require the following information for H-1B registration: Continue reading →

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H-1B Chicago Immigration Lawyer

The H-1B visa is a type of non-immigrant visa that allows U.S. employers to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations, such as in the fields of technology, engineering, and science.  The H-1B status permits a foreign worker to live and work in the United States for up to six years, along with the worker’s spouse and children, unmarried and under 21, who receive H-4 status.  Some H-1B workers who are in a process of applying for permanent residence can remain in the U.S. beyond the six-year maximum.  Because immigrant visas are subject to per-country quotas, workers born in oversubscribed countries like India or China may take years, sometimes decades to receive permanent residence.   Our Chicago immigration lawyers like to point out that under current backlogs, a physician born in India will wait over 11 years in line to receive a green card.  In comparison, persons born in countries without backlogs, can immigrate as soon as the paperwork goes through, even if they are not in a professional or a specialty occupation.

If an H-1B worker is laid off, they will generally have to either find a new job and have their H-1B visa transferred to the new employer, or leave the United States.  If the H-1B worker is waiting for a green card and is in a backlogged country, the new employer will have to restart the green card from scratch, but the worker’s place in line will not change because the new petition will receive the earliest filing date from any prior petition.  If the worker is unable to find a new job and their H-1B visa is not transferred to a new employer, they will be out of status and may be subject to deportation.  When a worker falls out of status for more than 180 days, they lose their ability to receive a green card even if they are close to receiving their green card in the line. It’s important for H-1B workers who have been laid off to talk with an immigration attorney to understand their options and ensure that they are in compliance with U.S. immigration laws.

If an H-1B worker is laid off, they may be eligible for a 60-day grace period during which they can remain in the United States and look for a new job. This grace period is known as “60-day portability” and it applies to H-1B workers who have been previously granted H-1B status and who have a new, non-frivolous H-1B petition filed on their behalf within 60 days of their previous H-1B employment ending. This provision Continue reading →

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Under the Biden Administration, the USCIS has announced that it intends to fight the backlog of immigration applications through three new action steps: reducing processing backlogs, expanding premium processing, and improving access to Employment Authorization Documents. Our Chicago Immigration Law Office intends to inform all clients on what to expect with their own applications given the recent updates by the USCIS. Read below to learn more about the USCIS’ efforts to reduce backlog and wait times.

Reducing Backlogs in Processing

The USCIS has redesigned their internal cycle times to reduce the wait-time of immigration application decisions. The new cycle times reflect the average amount of time it takes the USCIS to process and decide on a case. These cycle times offer clear and consistent guidance to USCIS workers on the average time a specific application takes to process from beginning to end. For example, an application for an I-129 application takes on average 2 months to process without the premium processing service. Other applications like the N-400, I-140, or I-130 take an average of 6 months to process from start to finish.  To support the internal cycle times for reducing backlog, USCIS has implemented another feature in their plan by expanding premium processing services to more application types.

Continue reading →
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Automatic EAD Extension

The Chicago immigration law team of Zneimer & Zneimer alerts our clients that the DHS has increased the automatic extension validity period for expiring Employment Authorization Documents.  The automatic extension period is increased to up to 540 days for all eligible classes who properly filed their renewal application on or before October 26, 2023. Such automatic extension period will automatically terminate the earlier of up to 540 days after the expiration date of the Employment Authorization Document (Form I–766, or successor form) or upon issuance of notification of a denial on the renewal request, even if such date is after October 26, 2023. Those  whose automatic extension expired before May 4, 2022, will receive an automatic resumption of employment authorization and the validity of their Employment Authorization Document, as applicable, for an additional period beginning from May 4, 2022, and up to 540 days from the expiration of their employment authorization and/or Employment Authorization Document as shown on the face of such document.

An Employment Authorization Document that has expired on its face is considered unexpired when combined with a Notice of Action (Form I–797C), which demonstrates that the requirements have been met, notwithstanding any notations on such notice indicating an automatic extension of up to 180 days.

Categories Eligible for Automatic Extensions

Not all categories receive the benefit of automatic extension.  For example, people who have EAD as H-4 spouses are not eligible for the automatic extension.  To receive the automatic extension, the application must be:

  • Properly filed before the expiration date shown on the face of the Employment Authorization Document, or for EADs based on Temporary Protected Status, during the filing period described in the applicable Federal Register notice regarding procedures for obtaining Temporary Protected Status-related EADs;
  • Based on the same employment authorization category as shown on the face of the expiring Employment Authorization Document or is for an individual approved for Temporary Protected Status or whose EAD was issued pursuant to TPS status; and
  • Based on a class whose eligibility to apply for employment authorization continues notwithstanding expiration of the Employment Authorization Document and is based on an employment authorization category that does not require adjudication of an underlying application or petition before adjudication of the renewal application.

Continue reading →

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The Immigration and Nationality Act provides that noncitizens with exceptional abilities or who are members of the professions holding an advanced degree, may receive a waiver of the job offer requirement if the USCIS deems such waiver in the “national interest.”  The national interest waiver is available only to noncitizens in the second preference category (EB-2).  This category is backlogged for years for noncitizens born in India or China, and without the ability to apply for adjustment of status for many years, such noncitizens will have to maintain H-1B status.  The requirement to maintain nonimmigrant status puts such noncitizens in a bind and makes it very difficult to develop their endeavor even if such endeavor meets all the requirements for a national waiver.   Noncitizens who apply for National Interest Waiver should be allowed to apply for employment authorization.

To prove eligibility, the petitioner has the burden to show that the person qualifies as either (i) a member of the professions holding an advanced degree or (ii) as a person of exceptional abilities.  Either of these two qualifications is a threshold issue.  Once the person demonstrates that such person meets at least one of the categories, the person also must prove that (iii) the waiver of the job offer requirement, which requires a test of the US market through labor certification requirement, is in the “national interest.” Continue reading →

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H-1B Approval Notice

The Chicago H-1B attorneys of Zneimer & Zneimer remind clients and noncitizens that USCIS recently announced the opening of the new H-1B registration period.  The H-1B registrant account function will be available on March 2, 2021, at 12:00 noon EST at myUSCIS. Employers and attorneys who already have MyUSCIS accounts from last year do not need to create new accounts for this year.

To login or to createan account, go to https://my.uscis.gov/, and follow the instructions.  Before starting the process, it is a good idea to watch USCIS’s instructions and check periodically USCIS’s H-1B registration page.  The option to register as H-1B registrant will not become available until March 2, 2021, at 12:00 noon EST.

During the registration period, petitioners and representatives would be able to fill out information about employers and beneficiaries and submit registrations for H-1B petitions.  The registrants must use myUSCIS online account to register each beneficiary.  Each registration will cost $10.00 per person.  To submit H-1B registrations for beneficiaries,  potential petitioners must use the “registrant” account that will be available on March 2, 2021.  If USCIS receives enough H-1B registrations by March 25, USCIS will run H-1B lottery and will send selection notifications via users’ myUSCIS online accounts by March 31.  Remember that submission of duplicate registration by the same petitioner for the same beneficiary will result in denial of the registration.

Only selected registrants will be able to file H-1B cap-subject petitions, and only on behalf of beneficiaries selected through the H-1B Continue reading →

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The Chicago immigration attorneys are following developments in immigration law.  Today, the USCIS announced that applicants that file their naturalization applications on or after December 1, 2020, will have to pass the updated citizenship test.  The new citizenship test will include 128 questions from the prior 100, and the officer will ask 20 questions, an increase from the previously required 10 question.  The USCIS will require a pass rate of 60% of the citizenship test, which means that an applicant must answer at least 12 out of the 20 questions.   The officer will not stop once the applicant answers 12 questions correctly but will ask all 20 “to gather data on test items to aid in future updates to the civics test.”  The officer will read of questions that a computer will randomly select.

Remember that “file” in immigration parlance means that the USCIS must have received the application no later than November 30, 2020, for the old test to apply.

According to the USCIS, “the revised test will improve USCIS’ ability to assess applicants’ knowledge and understanding of U.S. history and civics as required by the INA.”  The new test is now available on the USCIS’s website.

Continue reading →

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The Chicago immigration lawyers of Zneimer & Zneimer handle employment-based immigration and are very familiar with the lengthy priority date line.  Many Indian and Chinese people who contribute to the economic engine of our country with knowledge, creativity, and skills, have been stuck for years in an invisible visa line that barely moves forward.  These neighbors and friends among us do their job and pay their taxes, but they never stop worrying if their sponsored job will last until the end of the visa line, if a whimsical regulation will deny them H-1B extension and make them out of status, if by the time they reach the end of the line, their minor kids will age out unable to become permanent residents.  Many people turn down a well-deserved promotion because it is not the sponsored job, and they need to keep the job with the same title, same description, same company, and work address, until they can file for the last step of the process, adjustment of status.

Priority date.  The law presumes that when an employer offers a permanent position to a noncitizen, the employer displaces a U.S. worker.  To sponsor a foreign worker, the employer therefore must test the U.S. market for U.S. workers, and only if there are no U.S. workers who are willing, able, qualified, and available to fill the job, the employer can receive a labor certification from the Department of Labor, and then file an immigrant petition on behalf of the foreign worker.  In some cases, where the work is in the national interest, the USCIS can waive the test of the U.S. market.  Once a petition is filed and approved, the foreign worker receives a “priority date”, which is the date in the Visa Bulletin that shows when a worker can receive his or her green card.   The “priority date” is like a number, that places the noncitizen in the visa line, and will be called when the visa becomes available.  For people born in India and China, this number is distant and the line is a decade-wait long.

These are legal immigrants, in jobs that U.S. workers were not willing, able, qualified, or available to take, but employers and our economy needed to be filled.  They may be doctors in rural and medically underserved areas, software engineers with unique skills, cancer researchers, radiation oncology physicists, and others.  All have Bachelor or higher degrees.  Due to the per country quota, a janitor born in another country does not have to wait for an immigrant visa, while a Nobel Prize winner from India must wait at least 2.5 years. Immigrants from India with Master Degree, M.D., Ph.D., even when the USCIS has found that their employment is in the national interest, must wait to receive an immigrant visa, or green card, for many years.

Visa Bulletin. That is why, when the State Department published the Visa Bulletin for October 2020, it created a stir.  Visas that could not be used due to the pandemic for consular processing, were released for people waiting on the employment line, moving the priority date forward.  The category for EB-3 (skilled workers and workers with Bachelor Degrees) moved faster than the category for EB-2 (advanced degrees or petitions in national interest). Continue reading →

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The Government must “turn square corners in dealing with the people” said on June 18, 2020, the United States Supreme Court in rejecting the Administration’s explanations why it wants to terminate DACA.  The Government instead of “turning square corners” skipped a few corners and the Court decided that its action in terminating DACA was arbitrary and capricious.   The Chicago Immigration lawyers of Zneimer & Zneimer PC finds very significant that  Supreme Court acknowledged that “there is so much at stake” and  characterized the relationship between the Government and the people as one that has demands on both sides.

Justice Holmes famously wrote that “[m]en must turn square corners when they deal with the Government.” Rock Island, A. & L. R. Co. v. United States, 254 U. S. 141, 143 (1920). But it is also true, particularly when so much is at stake, that “the Government should turn square corners in dealing with the people.” St. Regis Paper Co. v. United States, 368 U. S. 208, 229 (1961) (Black, J., dissenting).  DHS et al. v. Regents of Univ. of California, et al.  591 U. S. ____ (2020)(emphasis added)

On June 18, 2018, the United States Supreme Court determined that the Trump Administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act in their 2017 attempt to terminate DACA.  The Supreme Court did not answer the question whether or not DACA is lawful.  The Court only answered the question whether or not the DHS “complied with the procedural requirements” to provide a “reasoned explanation for its action.”  The Court stated that the Administrative Procedures Act requires agencies to engage in “reasoned decisionmaking” and that the DHS’s decision making was inadequate.

The Court stated:

Whether DACA is illegal is, of course, a legal determination, and therefore a question for the Attorney General. But deciding how best to address a finding of illegality moving forward can involve important policy choices, especially  when the finding concerns a program with the breadth of DACA. Those policy choices are for DHS.  DHS et al. v. Regents of Univ. of California, et al.  591 U. S. ____ (2020)

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The Chicago immigration attorneys of Zneimer & Zneimer follow closely regulatory changes in the J waiver process and learned that recently the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has revised its guidelines for J Waivers for physicians subject to the 2-years foreign residency requirement.  HHS will now process applications for waivers from any facility in or with a health professional shortage area (HPSA) score of 7 or higher for foreign physicians to practice in a primary care specialty (family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics, obstetrics & gynecology) or general psychiatry.

HHS acts as an Interested Government Agency (IGA) on behalf of  foreign physicians subject to the 2-years foreign residency requirement who agree to work for 3 years in certain areas.  Previously, the HHS only processed applications for facilities which were either:

  • A health center as defined under Section 330 of the Public Health Service Act, and  which is receiving a grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services  Administration under this section;
  • A rural health clinic as defined under Sections 1102 and 1871 of the Social Security Act; or
  • A Native American/Alaskan Native tribal medical facility as defined by the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (P.L. 93-638)

Continue reading →

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